Milk Reagent Pad Imaging for High-Throughput Milking Analysis
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing milking systems face challenges in achieving high throughput while minimizing the use of reagents, as they often require high reagent concentrations or longer analysis times, which can be resource-intensive and impact system efficiency.
Innovation Solution
The milking system incorporates a camera device with a field of view that includes multiple reagent pads, allowing for extended reaction time by keeping reagent pads in view for more than one sampling period, thereby reducing the need for high reagent concentrations and enabling efficient analysis across multiple milking cycles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the sampling and analysis device samples and analyses milk in the same rhythm as consecutive milkings (high throughput), then the time for chemical reaction in the reagent pad is shortened, requiring high reagent concentration, but this increases resource consumption and cost
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by capturing multiple images of the reagent pad at different time points before the reaction completes. This allows the analysis to be based on temporal changes rather than requiring complete reaction, enabling reduced reagent concentration while maintaining analysis quality and throughput.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of requiring a single high-quality image that captures the complete reaction, the system creates multiple copies (images) of the reagent pad at different time points. These multiple copies are then analyzed together to determine the presence and concentration of substances, replacing the need for high reagent concentration with temporal redundancy.
2Quantity of substance
If less reagent is used in the reagent pad to reduce resource consumption, then the chemical reaction takes longer, but this lowers the throughput through the milking system
Solution Approach 1:
The system captures images at multiple time points before the reaction completes, performing the measurement action preliminarily. This allows using less reagent (slower reaction) while maintaining throughput by analyzing the temporal progression of the reaction across multiple captured states rather than waiting for complete reaction.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates multiple temporal copies of the reagent pad state through sequential imaging. These copies represent different stages of the reaction process, allowing the system to analyze slower reactions (with less reagent) by comparing multiple time-point copies rather than requiring a single endpoint measurement.
3Loss of time
If high reagent concentration is used to enable quick analysis for high throughput, then the analysis time is reduced, but the resource consumption and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces the need for high reagent concentration (which would accelerate the reaction) with multiple temporal copies of the reagent pad. By analyzing the progression across multiple images taken at different times, the system achieves quick analysis without requiring high reagent concentration, thus reducing resource consumption while maintaining short analysis time.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary capture of multiple reaction states before the reaction completes. This preliminary multi-point sampling allows the system to determine reaction kinetics and substance concentration without waiting for complete reaction or using high reagent concentrations to accelerate the process.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach allows for a significant reduction in reagent usage while maintaining or improving analysis precision and throughput, making the system more resource-efficient and flexible in handling multiple dairy animals.
Implementation Method 1
a tape that is lengthwise provided with a series of consecutive reagent pads that are configured to provide a detectable response in the presence of at least one substance in the sample
Implementation Method 2
a camera device operably connected to the control unit, and arranged to obtain an image of said reagent pad supplied with said droplet of the sample
Data Source
AI summary
A milking system with a milking device, a milking control, a milk line in fluid connection with the milking device, and a sampling and analysis device to take a sample of the milk from the milk line and to analyse milk from the sample are disclosed. The milking control is arranged to control the milking device on the basis of the analysis. The sampling and analysis device includes a control unit, a tape reel provided with a tape that is lengthwise provided with a series of consecutive reagent pads that provide a detectable response in the presence of a substance in the sample, a tape mover to move the tape, a dosing device to supply a part of the sample onto a reagent pad on the tape, and a camera to obtain an image of the reagent pad supplied with the droplet, and an analysis device to analyse the obtained images to provide to the milking control device an indication of a presence or concentration of said substance. The camera has a field of view that contains a plurality of reagent pads of the series of consecutive reagent pads. This allows to observe the reaction in the reagent pad for a much longer time. In turn, this allows to use much less reagent material, such as expensive enzymes, in the pads. It is particularly useful when observing double layer reagent types.